


Tired

by breeisonfire



Series: TAG prompt fics [26]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, i love gordon tracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 20:20:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15469266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeisonfire/pseuds/breeisonfire
Summary: preludeinz asked "38, Gordon and Grandma"





	Tired

**Author's Note:**

> 38\. "I'm just tired."

It’s been a rough couple of days for her boys and she can tell.

Sally Tracy loves her grandsons. She’s proud of what they do, of what they’ve accomplished. They’re strong and compassionate. They make a difference in the world. They give people hope.

But they’re also just human. And she thinks the world sometimes forgets that. And sometimes, so do her grandsons.

So sometimes, it’s up to her to remind them.

Alan’s the easiest. He’s still young enough that she has some authority over him, and telling him to go relax, to play some video games and take some time off is easy. He’ll put up a fight sometimes, especially if someone’s on a rescue and he thinks they need him, but he still listens to her.

John’s the hardest. He makes it hard by always being in space. He doesn’t handle time off well as it is. He doesn’t like not being busy. His mind is constantly moving. It makes him good at his job, but bad at relaxing.

Luckily, she’s found an ally in EOS. It’d taken a while, but Sally had managed to move past their first impression of her, especially when she’d seen how much John cared for her. And EOS is happy to team up with her to get John to take care of himself.

And for other things, but that’s their secret.

Scott is second hardest. He’s only slightly easier than John, by way of being physically in Sally’s grasp. She can pull him away from his work. Metaphorically, anyway; he’s quite a bit taller than she is. But she can, and she can make him sit down and sip some tea or water until his eyes get heavy and he falls asleep. She can make sure he eats and sleeps regularly.

Virgil’s easy, too. He’s pretty self-aware. He knows his limits and how far past them he can go before he crashes. The only time he really needs her getting after him is when his insomnia is acting up and he’s not sleeping. They’ve worked out a system to get him if not to sleep, then to at least rest.

He often helps her with his brothers, too. And Brains. Brains is a whole other problem by himself.

As for Gordon…

He’s not hard to convince he needs time off. It’s recognizing _when_ he needs it that’s the problem.

Gordon’s taken it upon himself to keep the mood light. He cracks jokes and makes everyone smile, and he does it all at his own expense. Because keeping smiles on everyone else’s faces means keeping one on his own, even if he’s falling apart. And Sally knows this very well.

He’s also very good at deflecting when he doesn’t want to answer questions. You can go into a conversation expecting to ask him if he’s okay and come out of it without realizing he never answered your question. He’s made an art of it.

He’s like his grandfather that way.

Right now, he’s in the lounge, halfway leaning on his father’s desk, watching the comm intently. Alan and Scott are in space, doing a rescue halfway to Mars, and it’s proven tough for them. Gordon’s been hovering, which is unlike him. That’s how Sally knows he’s past his limits.

“Gordon?” she says softly.

He jumps, clearly startled, which is _also_ unlike him. She hadn’t exactly been quiet, walking up to him. He should have easily noticed her. That he hadn’t is another red flag.

“Oh, hi, Grandma,” he said, smiling.

The worst part about when he smiles is that it’s hard to tell when it’s genuine or not. He’s got a hundred smiles meant for a hundred different things, and unless you’re looking _very_ closely you can’t tell if the one he’s using is real or not.

Sally’s looking very closely. And this one is decidedly fake.

“How are they doing?” she asks, because calling him out on it never works.

“Good,” Gordon says, looking back up at the comm. “They’ve almost got everyone to safety. John says they’ll probably be back on Earth tomorrow.”

Sally knows this. She’d already asked, just five minutes before. She’s taking the moment to study Gordon.

He clearly feels her staring at him, because he glances to the side.

“Uh,” he says. “Everything okay?”

Sally tilts her head. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

The skin around his eyes tightens, just a bit, but otherwise he looks confused. “Uh, yeah? I think?”

Sally wants to frown. She hates when he plays dumb. But if that’s the way he’s going to play it, she might as well stop beating around the bush. “You don’t _look_ okay.”

The smile on his face freezes, and he looks to the side. “I’m just tired. It was a long day, Grandma.”

She’d almost buy it if it weren’t morning, and if he hadn’t been home all night. He and Virgil are on standby, ready and waiting for the next call. And come to think of it, Sally doesn’t remember the last time Gordon took more than the required twelve hours off.

“Hm,” she says. “Want to try that again?”

This time the smile is slightly sheepish, but she’s glad to see it’s real as he looks up and meets her eyes.

“Okay,” he admits. “I _know_. But I can’t exactly take time off right now - Scott won’t -.”

“I will deal with Scott,” she says firmly. Gordon’s always reluctant to admit to his eldest brother when he needs time off, but Scott would never begrudge him of it. When Sally tells him later, he’ll realize how long it’s been since Gordon had time off and immediately feel guilty. That will be a whole other conversation for her to deal with.

For now, she puts an arm around Gordon’s shoulder and resorts to her favorite tactic. “I’m thinking of making meatloaf surprise for dinner. What do you think?”

Gordon stiffens before smiling weakly. “Sounds, uh, great! Yummy!”

Sally refrains from laughing, but just barely. She knows she’s an awful cook, but she gets a kick out of her grandsons’ reactions. And really, she can’t fault them for not wanting to hurt her feelings.

But _damn_ is it funny.

“Great!” she says. “Go get some rest.”

“Right!” Gordon ducks out from under her arm and runs towards the stairs like something’s chasing him. It’s only when she hears his bedroom door close that she allows herself to laugh.

Yeah, she loves her grandsons.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm accepting prompts over on my [tumblr](http://drdone.tumblr.com) if you wanna hit me up!


End file.
